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t is known that smoking causes cancer, stains teeth, causes wrinkles and weakens sex drive. But did you know that the habit of smoking also poisons thousands of children in Indonesia?

Children as young as 8 years old are working in Indonesia’s tobacco farms, where they are exposed to potentially brain-damaging and illness-causing effects from nicotine poisoning and toxic pesticides, as well as dangerous physical work, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released on Wednesday.

The 119-page report, titled The Harvest is in My Blood: Hazardous Child Labor in Tobacco Farming in Indonesia, documents how child tobacco workers are exposed to nicotine, handle toxic chemicals, use sharp tools and work in extreme heat.

The HRW interviewed 132 children aged 8 to 17 working in tobacco farms in four provinces: West Java, Central Java, East Java and West Nusa Tenggara.

Half of them reported nausea, vomiting, headaches or dizziness, all symptoms consistent with acute nicotine poisoning from absorbing nicotine through their skin. Some children missed school or dropped out, the report said.

Aman, 18, for instance, said that he got violently ill while harvesting tobacco at his father’s farm in Sumenep, East Java, in 2014 and had to be treated at a hospital.

“I had to vomit but it wouldn’t come out. It happened twice, last year and the year before. I went to the hospital both times,” he said. “Last year was the worst. They gave me oxygen and an IV. My stomach felt hot and I was dizzy all the time.”

Despite this, Indonesian and multinational tobacco companies in Indonesia, such as Djarum, Gudang Garam, Bentoel and Sampoerna, have failed to ensure that children do not carry out hazardous work on farms in their supply chains.

Only multinational cigarette producers responded to the HRW’s request for a response.

“Djarum and Gudang Garam did not respond at all despite our repeated attempts to reach them.” HRW children’s rights advocacy director, Jo Becker, said.

The Jakarta Post had also reached out to Djarum for a response but it declined to comment on the report.

The companies named in the report as sourcing from Indonesia or owning Indonesian tobacco firms are Altria Group Inc., British American Tobacco Plc, China National Tobacco Corp., Imperial Brands Plc, Japan Tobacco Inc., Philip Morris International Inc. and Reynolds American Inc. BAT, which makes the Dunhill, Lucky Strike and Pall Mall brands, and Philip Morris, which produces Marlboro, Parliament and Virginia Slims, respectively own or control Indonesian companies PT Bentoel Internasional Investama and PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna.

 “Tobacco companies are making money off the backs and the health of Indonesian child workers,” said Margaret Wurth, children’s rights researcher at the HRW and coauthor of the report.

Therefore, the report recommended more vigilance, government regulation and a ban on children under 18 handling tobacco. The legal employment age in Indonesia is 15.

But pressure from human rights advocates alone will not be enough to stop children from being exploited by the tobacco industry.

Consumers could play a huge role in this issue as they have the power to choose products that are made ethically and do not pose a harm to children.

“Right now we say that there are no cigarette brands that we’ve encouraged to buy because they are child-labor free. They simply don’t exist,” Becker said.

Multinational tobacco companies, such as Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and Imperial Brands, said that they welcomed the report.

“We truly acknowledge more needs to be done,” Philip Morris sustainability officer Miguel Coleta said as quoted by Bloomberg. “It sheds light on a very important issue. By having more visibility, we hope that others will be encouraged to make improvements in reducing child labor.”

He noted that the company had seen “a significant reduction” in child labor incidents since it began four years ago to increase the amount of tobacco it purchased from Indonesian farmers through direct contract, which is now about 70 percent of its Indonesian supply.

British American Tobacco said in a statement that the UK-based company and its Indonesian subsidiary, Bentoel, took the issue of child labor “extremely seriously”.

However, it also noted that children in Indonesia often participated in agriculture to help their families, and to learn farming methods and skills from their elders.

Indonesia Tobacco Community Alliance (AMTI) spokesman Agung Suryanto said that children who helped their families in tobacco farms should not be perceived as child workers.

“These children are learning. So it’s not that simple. It’s a cultural thing because the skills of farming have to be inherited by the next generation. Some of them still go to school and we see they’re still smiling while giving testimonies [in the video of the report]. There’s no suffering,” he told the Post.
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